Antony Gormley at the Royal Academy

Antony Gormley at the Royal Academy is a very challenging exhibition in a number of ways:

Clearing VII 2019

It is physically challenging because the viewer is forced to engage with the exhibits. Clearing VII is made from eight kilometres of square-section aluminum tube which coils around the space. Viewers have to pick their way through the exhibit to get to the next gallery and then find their way back. Perhaps the most demanding exhibit was undoubtedly Cave 2019 which entails stooping and feeling one's way to navigate one's way through a pitch black iron tunnel which leads to a four-metre high cave and then exit through another tunnel.

Host 2019

In comparison to most other Royal Academy exhibitions the logistical challenge of assembling some of these exhibit must have been significant. Several of these exhibits (Clearing VII, Cave and Matrix III) are on such a monumental scale that their assembly in situ involved shifting literally tons of metal and suspending many of them on the walls and from the ceiling. The greatest challenge was probably Host 2019 which transforms one of the galleries into an expanse of clay and seawater (Will the wooden floors ever recover?!). Many of these exhibits were clearly designed for this exhibition in this space. They are unique and will never be experienced in quite the same way even if they are reassembled in a different gallery.

Flesh 1990

In his concrete works Flesh, Passage and Press 1990-93, Gormley challenges the traditional notions of space and form. At first glace they look like concrete blocks, but on closer inspection they are hollow and the void in the shape of a human body: they are 'inverse sculptures' - prompting the viewer to re-evaluate the physical volume which we occupy.

The biggest take-away for me was that this exhibition challenges the norms of how viewers engage with art. It is a far cry from the RA gallery rules which are literally etched into the wall. Indeed Gormley manages to push the boundaries of what constitutes 'gallery art'.

Having previously seen Antony Gormley's famous outdoor installation masterpieces The Angel of the North and Another Place  (on Crosby Beach), I confess I was intrigued whether or not his sculptures would translate to the iconic galleries of the Royal Academy. I was not disappointed.

Me, engaging with Lost Horizon 2008

Solomon’s Code by Olaf Groth and Mark Nitzberg – Book Summary

This is a book about Artificial Intelligence that deliberately poses more questions than it answers. Groth and Nitzberg’s aim is to outline some of the most important multi-disciplinary debates that need to take place if AI ultimately is going to be beneficial to humanity. 

The authors take a fundamentally optimistic (but not utopian) view of AI and how it can benefit society, but this is grounded in the real politik of twenty-first century multi- and inter-national relations. This optimism is seen in the espousal of a model of human-AI symbiosis (Chapter 3) which enhances humanity: 

a “symbiotic relationship between artificial, human and other types of natural intelligence can unlock incredible ways to enhance the capacity of humanity and environment around us.” (p.69) 

This is worked out in a number of ways through discussion of a number of important social debates: justice and fairness, privacy, security, surveillance and changing patterns of work. In the first half of the book, Groth and Nitzberg discuss a range of important philosophical questions thrown up by AI about the nature of what it is to be human: self-consciousness (pp.96ff), human personhood, autonomy and free will; reshaping the sense of the self (p.76) and the ability for humans to change their values and beliefs over time (p.88). 

The second half of the book is a call to arms to put in place a regulatory framework (“guardrails”) for the use of AI which maximises the benefits of AI, whilst mitigating potential harm. They argue that this will include drafting a “Digital Magna Carta” which defines human freedoms in the age of AI (p.232). In so doing, the authors recognise just how difficult this is likely to be. Indeed, about a third of the book is devoted to outlining the complexities of the emerging geopolitical context for these discussions. 

There is an excellent discussion of “the forces that shape the world’s divergent AI journeys” (Chapter 4), which outlines the different attitudes to AI and technology around the world: “the Digital Barons” (Google, Facebook, Amazon, Alibaba and Baidu); “the Cambrian Countries (US and China); “the Castle Countries” (Russian and Western Europe); “the Knights of the Cognitive Era” (military/defence-based AI – US, China and Israel); “the Improv Artists” (other countries developing aspects of AI – Nigeria, Indonesia, India and Barbados); “Astro Boy” (Japan); and “the CERN of AI” (Canada – the open-source concept of an international network of data generators). 

What comes through this discussion is the range of ways that power, trust and values are being played out across societies, often driven by different regional philosophical traditions. For example, the influence of Taoist, Confucian and Communist thought on China; and the social challenges of an ageing population in Japan mean that these countries have fundamentally different attitudes to the West on issues such as privacy and the relationship between humans to machines. The authors rightly point out that this philosophical diversity poses significant challenges for anyone seeking to formulate a universal approach to regulating the use of AI. 

In the authors’ analysis of ‘the race for global AI influence’ (Chapter 5) the battle for control of data and AI is tantamount to a new arms race which has the potential to reshape the political world order (Putin: the country that leads on AI “will become the ruler of the world” p.151) and discuss each of the main protagonists in turn: US, China, Russia and the EU. 

“Philosophies of regulation, influence and social and economic participation will conflict – as they should. Those clashes and their outcomes will coalesce around issues of values, trust and power” (p.163-4). 

The authors close (chapter 8) by discussing possible ways in which the community of nations might establish “a global governance institution with a mutually accepted verification and enforcement capacity” (p.233). In so doing they discuss the lessons learned from other recent multinational treaties and governance models, such as the Montreal Protocol to reduce chloroflurorocarbons, the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Organization of the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and the UN Global Compact. In light of these, they argue instead for a “new governance” model which draws its legitimacy from “its inclusion and the robustness of the norms and standards it disseminates”, but which is aligned “with existing pillar of global governance such as the United Nations or the World Trade Organization” (p.249) 

The authors conclude that “the Machine can make us better humans” (p.253): 

“Combining the unique contributions of these sensing, feeling and thinking beings we call human with the sheer cognitive power of the artificially intelligent machine will create a symbio-intelligent partnership with the potential to lift us and the world to new heights.” (p.257) 

Surprisingly for a work of this quality and nature, the book has no index and only has limited referencing.

The Future of the Professions by Richard and Daniel Susskind - Summary of some key ideas

Richard and Daniel Susskind's The Future of the Professions challenges the view that white collar jobs will be immune from the impact of technological advances into the workplace. Indeed, the authors go so far as to detail the road map 'how technology will transform the work of human experts':

'In the long run, increasingly capable machines will transform the work of professionals giving rise to new ways of sharing practical expertise in society' (p.303) 

with a consequence that

'Decades from now, today's professions will play a much less prominent role in society.' (p.271) 

They argue that reform of the professions is not only inevitable, but that it is long overdue.

The role of the professions - the Grand Bargain

At the heart of Susskind and Susskind's argument is a particular understanding of the relationship between society and the professions. 'The professions are responsible for many of the most important functions and services in society' and their fundamental role ‘is to provide access to knowledge and experience that non specialists lack’ (p.268).  Society affords the professions protection and status in return for providing these services fairly in an arrangement which they call 'the grand bargain':

'In acknowledgement of and in return for their expertise, experience, and judgement, which they are expected to apply in delivering affordable, accessible, up-to-date, reassuring, and reliable services  . . . we (society) place our trust in the professions in granting them exclusivity over a wide range of socially significant services and activities, by paying them a fair wage, by conferring upon them independence, autonomy, rights of self-determination, and by according them respect and status.' (p.23)

Thus the purpose of the professions is to provide solutions to issues which individuals within society commonly face: ill-health, disputes, lack of education, the need for news and navigating the tax system.

The authors believe that the professions are ripe for reform and should lose their privileged status because they have broken this bargain, in that they do not provide these services that are either 'affordable' or 'accessible':

'levels of access and affordability to the practical expertise that the professions provide fall short of acceptable. The combination of these two reasons - the importance of what they provide, and the current inadequacy of the provision - overwhelms the case to protect the craft.' (p.247 - also p.269)

Automation and Transformation of the Professions

The authors outline how automation is likely to come to the professions by examining some of the practices that have been adopted by those in the vanguard of change:

Education

• Online learning - Khan Academy etc.
• Flipped Blended Learning
• Learning Analytics

Law

• Document Assembly Systems (e.g. ContractExpress) which can generate high quality documents after interactive consultations with users.
• Online Dispute Resolution (e.g. Modria which is behind eBay and PayPal's resolution service)

Tax and Audit

• Online computerised tax preparation software (e.g. TurboTax in the US)
• Online Accounting software (e.g. Quickbooks)
• Computer-Assisted Audit Techniques (e.g. PwC's system, Aura)

Medicine

• 'Telemedicine' using video links to make diagnoses or to aid with operations from a distance;
• Robots assisting surgeons to conduct delicate operations with greater dexterity than is possible by a human;
• the rise of online medical platforms and 'GP intelligent monitoring', 'remote monitoring' by smart devices and apps;
• Robotic Pharmacy (e.g. the University of California at San Francisco which has a pharmacy staffed by a single robot);

Eight Patterns and Trends

Decomposition, Process Analysts, Para-professionals and Delegation

One of the most important observations that Susskind and Susskind make is that when we are talking about the future of the professions, we need to move on from seeing the machine v human debate in binary terms. They are not talking about a robot replacing a lawyer/teacher/doctor in the way that a robot might replace a human worker on the production line of a car manufacturing plant. However when we 'decompose' or break down what lawyers/teachers/doctors do into tasks, we can see there there is scope for some of these to replaced with automated systems - or indeed by lesser qualified human beings.

We argue that professional work should be decomposed, that is broken down into constituent ‘tasks’ – identifiable, distinct, and separate modules of work that make it up. Once decomposed, the challenge then is to identify the most efficient way of executing each type of task, constituent with the quality of work needed, the level of human interaction required, and the ease with which the decomposed tasks can be managed alongside one another and pulled together into a coherent offering. (p.212)

Leading on from this, the authors argue that one of the key roles for professional organisations in the future is that of the 'process analyst' whose role is 'to identify the level of person best suited for the range of decomposed tasks (p.124).

On analysis, it is frequently becoming apparent in various disciplines that para-professional who are sufficiently trained, knowledgeable, and equipped can undertake tasks that were previously taken on by senior professionals. (p.124-5)

The delegation to para-professionals may lead to replacement by automated systems:

The features of tasks in the workplace that make them amenable to delegation and para-professionalization - that they are well bounded and can, in part, be captured in standard processes - are precisely those features that render them strong candidates in due course for the application of technology (both automation and innovation). (p.125) 

Decomposition and Para-professionalism in Schools?

This all begs the question of whether or not teaching can be decomposed and the tasks either delegated to a 'Para-Teacher' or performed by the application of technology. This is the subject of my Master's Dissertation with the Ashridge-Hult Business School and I will be discussing some of the ideas here in a subsequent blogpost.

Leading Digital – Turning Technology into Business Transformation by Westmann, Bonnet and McAffee – Key Points

Leading Digital outlines how firms in any industry can harness digital technologies to gain strategic advantage. The book categorises four types of organisation according to their ‘level of digital mastery’ with the follow characteristics:

1. Beginners – an immature digital culture usually with a management sceptical of the business value of advanced technologies; 
2. Fashionistas – a digital culture which lacks an overarching vision; but has many advanced features which exist in silos. 
3. Conservatives – an overarching digital vision which is underdeveloped, but active steps are being taken to build digital skills and culture; there is strong digital governance across silos.
4. Digital Masters – a strong digital culture flowing from an overarching digital vision with excellent governance across silos; many digital initiatives generating measurable business value. Digital Masters combine digital capabilities and leadership capabilities to achieve performance that is greater than either dimension can deliver on its own. 

The book also has some very useful self-assessment tools:

• How well is your organisation building digital capabilities?
• How well is your organisation building leadership capabilities?

Structure of the Book

Part One: Digital Capability: the what of digital mastery 

• How firms engage with customers and how they can create a ‘compelling customer experience’. 
• How digital technologies can transform operational processes and ‘exploit the power of core processes’
• How digital technologies can produce and reinvent new business models. 

Part Two: Leadership Capabilities: the how of digital mastery

• How to create a ‘transformative digital vision’. 

Re-envisioning the customer experience

Re-envisioning operational processes

Combining both of these to re-envision business models 

• How to engage and energize employees to make the vision a reality. 
• How to put in place good ‘Digital Governance’ which will keep the transformation on the right track. o Standandise o Automate o Accelerate 
• How to develop ‘technology leadership capabilities’ to drive the transformation forward. 

Part Three: the Leader’s Playbook for Digital Transformation – concrete management guidance on how to get started. 

• How to frame the ‘Digital Challenge’
• How to focus investments
• How to mobilise the organisation 
• How to sustain the change. 

Some favourite quotes from the book: 

“The digital operations advantage is about more than great tools. It’s a combination of people, processes, and technology connected in a unique way to help you outperform you competitors.” p.69 

“Companies fall apart when their model is so successful that is stifles thinking that challenges it.” p.87 

“Leadership capabilities are essential to achieving true digital transformation, they turn digital investment into digital advantage.” p.95 

“When your technology leadership capabilities are weak, everything is a risky struggle. When they are strong, you can do great things.” p.171 

“Focussing investment is where the rubber meets the road in digital transformation.” p.189 

Some thoughts in response to the book

• Digital technologies have not brought cost savings in education because of increased compliance. 
• Digital transformation will not be possible in secondary schooling until it is liberated from the shackles of the (British) examination system. 
• So many schools have not imposed digital governance. Enthusiasts have been allowed to run off in all directions. There needs to be a balance between empowerment and anarchy.

Make It Stick by Brown, Roediger and McDaniel - Key Points

Make it Stick is a book about effective learning strategies, It is based on the latest findings of various research studies into how Cognitive Psychology can best be applied to Education and is written by experts in this field.

The central thesis of this book is that the most effective learning strategies are simple but often counter-intuitive. The key points can be summarised as follows:

1. Learning requires effort: some kinds of difficulties ("desirable difficulties") during learning help to make the learning stronger and better remembered;  When learning is easy, it is often superficial and soon forgotten. Don't confuse fluency/familiarity with learning
2. Learning is better when you wrestle with new problems before being given the solution, rather than the other way round.
3. Retrival practice (= self-quizzing) - recalling facts or concepts or events from memory - makes learning stick. This can be best done by regular testing as part of the learning process either in class or individually. Thus testing is formative - a means to the end - which is learning. 
4. Practice that is spaced out, interleaved with other learning and varied produces better mastery, longer retention and greater versatility. Cramming and chunking are NOT effective learning methods.
5. Mastery moves from knowledge to know-how. When learning, distill the underlying principles, look for patterns, make connections. "Knowledge is not know-how until you understanding the underlying principles at work and can fit them together into a structure larger than the sum of the parts." (p.158)

Interestingly, the authors criticise pandering to individual learning styles:

"We acknowledge that everyone has learning preferences, but we are not persuaded that you learn better when the manner of instruction fits those preferences." (p.132)

Departing from the main theme of the book, there is an interesting chapter (7) on how to 'Increase your Abilities', which explains neuroplasticity and how IQ can be improved, before launching into a number of memory techniques.

The final chapter (8) distills out the book's principles with tip for different user groups: students, life-longer learners, teachers and trainers.

Make it Stick is an important book for students (of all ages) and teachers alike (particularly in the secondary and tertiary age phases). It challenges many traditional methods of learning and does so with a weight of research behind it. Schools would do well to take on board its central points. Teachers might like to review their schemes of work considering how they will incorporate more testing, spaced interleaved and varied learning into their programmes.
For more information go to makeitstick.net, where there is an chapter by chapter summary of the book.

I must say that I found the book's (somewhat apologetic/defensive) tone and style intensely irritating throughout. It was a dry read and it was repetitive - I can only think that the authors decided to model the concept of "desirable difficulty" and "spaced learning"! 

The Great Degeneration: how Institutions decay and Economies die by Niall Ferguson - Summary of key points

Niall Ferguson is a prophet of our time. His great strength as an historian is that he applies the lessons of the past to comment on the present and to warn about the future.

In the The Great Degeneration Ferguson sets out to discuss the state of our political, economic, legal and social institutions by opening up what he calls four 'long-sealed black boxes': 'democracy', 'capitalism', 'the rule of law' and 'civil society' (p.11). Each of these four themes originally formed a Radio 4 Reith Lecture in 2011 and now form a chapter of the book (Links to the Reith Lectures can be found at the end of this article).

Chapter One: The Human Hive

Ferguson, revisiting some of the arguments in his excellent book Civilisation: the West and the Rest, sets out to explain the 'great divergence' after 1500 whereby Western civilisation fares so much better than other civilisations. His answer is that institutional evolution is the key to understanding Western ascendancy: it was Western institutions and in particular 'the rule of law' is what made the difference. He argues that the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the 1689 Bill of Rights was a turning point that laid the foundations for the subsequent economic developments of agricultural improvement, imperial expansion and industrial revolution (p.32-3).

Turning to the present, Ferguson argues that excessive public debts are a symptom of the breakdown of what Edmund Burke called 'the partnership between the generations'. For Ferguson a great malaise of modern society is that Governments around the world have allowed public debt to grow out of control allowing 'the current generation of voters to live at the expense of those at yet too young to vote or as yet unborn' (p.41).

Chapter Two: The Darwinian Economy

Reflecting on the causes and lessons of the global financial crisis that began in 2007, Ferguson argues that over-complicated financial regulation was a key factor. Characteristically, he provides historical insights by reference to Walter Bagehot's Lombard Street published in 1873, which reflected on the financial crises and legislation of the nineteenth century. He concludes by arguing for a return to 'Bagehot's world where individual prudence - rather than mere compliance - precisely because the authorities were powerful and the crucial rules unwritten' (p.77); and that rogue bankers should be incarcerated pour encourager les autres. The chapter would be a useful addition to a reading list for anyone preparing for a university interview in Economics or Banking and Finance.

Chapter Three: The Landscape of Law

Ferguson argues that 'the Rule of Law' is fundamentally good because of the material consequences that it brings, particularly because it is conducive to economic growth. The key to this important aspect of the Rule of Law is the ability of societies to develop effective, low-cost enforcement on contracts; but history tells us that the problem is getting the enforcers (often the state) not to abuse their powers. Ferguson argues that, viewed historically, the English system of Common Law 'was superior in performing the twin roles of contract enforcement and coercion constraint to all other systems (French, German, Scandinavian and Chinese). This is because English common law systems offer greater protection for investors and creditors, and thus people in these systems are more willing to invest and lend money. It is the flexibility of common laws systems that make them superior. He cites two judicial appeal summations to make his point:

"Common law adapts itself by a perpetual process of growth to the perpetual roll of the tide of circumstances as society advances."  (Danzig, 'Hadley v Baxendale', p.277)

and

"In the course of deciding the case before him he [the judge] may, on occasion, develop the common law in the perceived interests of justice."  (Lord Goff in Kleinwort Benson v Lincoln City Council, 1999)

Ferguson then identifies four present threats to 'the Rule of Law':

1. How far our civil liberties have been eroded by the national security state ("a choice between habeas corpus and hundreds of corpses"?! p.97);
2. The intrusion of European Law, with its civil law character, into the English legal system;
3. The growing complexity of statute law;
4. The mounting cost of the law.

The consequence particularly of these complexities and cost is that societies become less competitive economically. Citing the Oxford Developmental Economist, Paul Collier, Ferguson argues that there are four steps which developing nations wishing to establish 'The Rule of Law' need to put in place:

1. reduce violence
2. protect property rights
3. impose institutional checks on government
4. prevent corruption.

Ferguson concludes the chapter by arguing that the present malaise in the West is because there has been a shift from 'The Rule of Law' to 'The Rule of Lawyers' -  where rather than using the law to make a better society, lawyers are using the law to their own ends.

The chapter would be a useful addition to a reading list for anyone preparing for a university interview in Law.

Chapter Four: Civil and Uncivil Societies

Ferguson here argues that reform of our society must come, not from public institutions, but from the the citizens of civil societies working independent of the state. He tracks the decline in membership of voluntary associations both in US and the UK and argues that it is these institutions that are the key to a civil society because they foster a sense of corporate responsibility among individual citizens, rather than relying on the state to solve society's ills. Indeed he goes so far as to argue that some of the finest institutions in the world are independent of governments, in particular, the Independent School sector and the top universities.

Ferguson's solution to the ills of the modern West, is that we all need to get more involved in society:

"True citizenship is not just about voting, earning and staying on the right side of the law. It is also about participating in the 'troop'." (p.132)

Conclusion

In the final chapter, Ferguson looks to a future of increased urbanization and mega-cities with a degree of optimism. His argument is that the net benefits of urbanization are conditioned by the institutional frameworks within which cities operate.

"Where there is effective representative government, where there is a dynamic market economy, where the rule of law is upheld and where civil society is independent of the state, the benefits of a dense population overwhelm the costs." (p.142)

This is an excellent little book (it is only 152 pages) and will take a couple of hours to read and many more to digest. It is very accessible - add it to the list of books your pupils should read before leaving school.

LINKS: The Reith Lectures 2012: The Rule of Law and Its Enemies

1. The Human Hive - Ferguson argues that institutions determine the success or failure of nations.
2. The Darwinian Economy - Ferguson reflects on the causes and lessons of the global financial crisis.
3. The Landscape of the Law - Ferguson asks if different systems of law are key to economic success.
4. Civil and Uncivil Societies - Ferguson asks what constitutes a vibrant and independent civil society.

These can be downloaded as MP3 podcasts from here.

Management Teams - Why they succeed or fail by Meredith Belbin - Key Points

Belbin is a name that has become synonymous with the profiling of teams and thus it is no surprise that Meredith Belbin's Management Teams - Why they succeed or fail has become a seminal text.  Here are a few key points:

Methodology: Belbin's conclusions were based initially on research in putting teams together for management exercises at Henley Management College in the 1970s and 1980s Teams were put together by the research team on the basis of a range of psychometric tests. These teams were then tested by their performance in business game simulations where success was measured in terms of the overall profit which the team generated in the course of the exercise. Having developed a theoretical model in the Henley test-bed, Belbin subsequently put his ideas in practice in a range of industries.

Team Roles: Belbin identifies key roles within teams.  These are usefully summarised by Belbin in a very useful summary sheet, a full size version of which appears at the end of this blogpost and which can be downloaded from Belbin's website here.

Summary of Conclusions
The contributing factors to Successful Teams were:

1. The attributes of the person in the Chair;
2. The Existence of a good 'Plant' (the creative, imaginative, free-thinking role);
3. A spread in mental abilities;
4. A spread in personal attributes laying the foundation for different Team Role capabilities;
5. A distribution in the responsibilities of members to match their different capabilities;
6. An adjustment to the realization of balance.

The contributing factors to Unsuccessful Teams were:

1. Characterised by an over-emphasis on a particular ability or Team Role;
2. Individuals took on a role that was not suited to their personalities;
3. When key roles were required,but never filled.

The role of Intelligence: Interestingly teams with very high intelligence (Belbin calls these 'Apollo Teams') were very rarely successful - so you 'can beat bright'; conversely teams where there was no one with high intelligence were almost always doomed to failure.

Team Leadership: Characteristics

1. The most effective team leaders were not the highest scorers in mental ability;
2. The most effective team leaders followed the 'Co-ordinator' profile (see team role sheet below)
3. 'Shapers' (a less calm, more driven Team Role profile) were successful at times;
4. Different leadership attributes were required to lead an 'Apollo team' of experts.

Personality Attributes of the Successful Chairmen (p.49-50)

1. A trusting nature;
2. A strong basic dominance (that to some extent counter-balanced their accepting nature)
3. A strong and morally based commitment to external goals and objectives;
4. Calm and Unflappable in face of controversy
5. Geared towards practical realism;
6. Possessed of a basic self-discipline;
7. Naturally enthusiastic;
8. Prone to detachment and distance in social relations.

Team Size:

1. The bigger the group, the greater the pressure to conformity;
2. Teams of 6 are often optimum

"A team of six could offer a broad range of technical skills and Team Roles so that a company could achieve, if its composition was favourable, a high degree of balance." p.113

Sleeping with your SmartPhone by Leslie Perlow - Book Review

This book is not about managing SmartPhone usage; it is about the steps that an organisation can take to improve the efficiency of how teams work, one by-product of which was that employees achieved a better work-life balance.

On one level it is the heart-warming story of how it took a Harvard Business School professor to get a group of highly paid workaholic consultants (Boston Consulting Group BCG) to turn their undoubted organisational talents inwards to achieve the simple goal of having one 'predictable night off' a week.

In essence there were two components to the 'Predictable Time Off' (PTO) project:

1. A collective goal of Predictable Time Off
2. Space for Structured Dialogue

Interestingly, the primary value of the PTO project was not that the employees ended up with more quality free-time (although in most cases that did happen), rather that the process itself set up a dialogue within the teams that in time fostered a mindset that challenged the status quo - challenging long-established ways of doing things and exploring new ones. The PTO process was a vehicle to change the culture of the organisation by opening up new methods of communication within project teams. PTO was an indirect way "to get people to challenge their beliefs about what the work requires as well as to cause people to actually make changes to how they do their work." (p.129).

Reflecting on the four years of the project, the author writes,

"What we have done at BCG is break the cycle of responsiveness and create a new system where all the components are now congruent around a new culture focused on getting the work done in ways that minimise the bad intensity and maximize individual's control." p.203

As one BCG partner summed it up,

"The value of PTO is in fighting that assumption that work-life balance and effective case teams are mutually exclusive. Because they are not." p.205

The obvious problem with this research project is that it is based around an acknowledged extreme of organisational behaviour where working away from home four nights a week is their form of norm, so people working in gentler contexts will have to translate accordingly.

This is an interesting and necessary piece of research. However, the book is in the overly repetitive style characteristic of many American business books, taking a simple message and story and milking it for all it's worth to the point that it justifies publication as a book, rather than as a pamphlet or magazine article.

Rather than buying the book I recommend that you read Leslie Perlow and Jessica Porter's  article, 'Making Time Off Predictable—and Required' Harvard Business Review (October, 2009); and Leslie Perlow's excellent TED talk, Thriving in an overconnected world

For examples of how Berkhamsted School changed its email culture see:

• Steps for achieving a Work-Life Balance. Changing the 24/7 Email Culture - Part One: The Idea
• Steps for achieving a Work-Life Balance. Changing the 24/7 Email Culture - Part Two: The Results

Bill Walsh Lessons in Leadership Part Two: An example of what not to do

Whilst The Score Takes Care of Itself has some excellent insights for leaders, the Bill Walsh story is also a cautionary tale, for it highlights the pitfalls of "Hero Leadership".

Pitfall No.1:  Inability to Delegate

Bill Walsh had an excellent knowledge of his industry, he had served his apprenticeship with some of the best and had had opportunity to develop his leadership style as Head Coach at Stanford. He was a perfectionist and this was his fatal flaw. As Head Coach and General Manager he took overall control of the whole organisation both on and off the field. He knew everyone's job, he had defined everyone's job, he set the standards for everyone's job, and believed that he could do everyone's job better than them (which may have been true) but ultimately it led to him 'burning out'.

"Somehow in my mind I believed that I as the best qualified to do almost every job, especially when it came to the offensive part of our game, In one sense, it stemmed from confidence; I was absolutely sure that if I did the job it would not get screwed up. Well that can only take you so far. Pretty soon you're on overload while very talented people in the organization are being underultilized. 

There were others, too, on my staff who are able and willing to take on more responsibilities. They were willing; I was reluctant, even unwilling - unable is perhaps more accurate.

Well that kind of thinking can only take you so far. Eventually you are working seven days a week, sixteen hours a day, with little good sleep, eating poorly, and dealing with all kind of forces."  (p.212-3)

Leaders need to look after themselves and one of the ways they can do this is by putting trust in the talented team that they have around them.. They need to use the capacity gained to take time away from the nitty gritty of work. to be able to reflect and to develop time on the ball (see blogpost).

Pitfall No.2: Perfectionism - knowing when to let things go

Bill Walsh strove for perfection - he loved what he calls the "puzzle of perfection". His analysis of the team's performance in when they beat Miami 38-16 to win their second Super Bowl (XIX) is a case in point (p.190-92): Walsh describes this as a "the closest I've ever come to coaching a perfect game", yet Walsh continues "two events marred it for me to this very day" and proceeds to deliver a detailed post-mortem on the two imperfect plays of the game.

Here lies the paradox that makes great leaders: leaders necessarily focus on things that go wrong because these are the areas for improvement; but the leaders who are able to sustain high levels of leadership need to learn when to let things go. Bill Walsh didn't and he allowed his perfectionism and attention detail to shift from being a creative to a destructive force.

Pitfall No.3:  Allowing Winning to become "Not-failing" - The Challenge of Sustained Success

No one expected the San Francisco 49ers to win Super Bowl XVI, a year after they had had one of the worst records in the league. However, with success came raised expectations and this only increased further when the 49ers won Super Bowl XIX four years later. Fear of failure drove Walsh to the point where victory was not enough - it simply became a form of not-losing. Walsh's advice with the benefit of hindsight was:

Avoid the destructive temptation to define yourself as a person by the won-lost record, the "score," however you define it. Don't equate your "won-lost record" with your self-worth. (p.225-6)

Walsh cautions against a world where executives cannot celebrate success because they are immediately preparing to win the next battle.

Pitfall No.4: Not Managing Up" - Not managing Expectations

Part of Walsh's problem in his latter years is that he did not "manage up" well. He allowed the owner of the club to have unrealistic expectations and set unrealistic, and ultimately unachievable, targets (a Super Bowl every year).  This was a major contributory factor to his burn out and early retirement.

The section where Walsh talks about the relationship with his owner (p.220-21) chimed with me. Throughout my 14 years of school leadership in the UK the most debilitating part of the job was managing expectations of Governors. In particular, there was always a constituency on the Board who, within minutes of my announcing record results for the nth consecutive year, shifted from momentary praise to laying out their expectations for even better results the following year. 

Over the years, I have realized that an important part of the role of a leader is to manage the expectations of key stakeholders (particularly, parents and Governors), Most of all, I have come to understand that I have a responsibility both to the staff, to the senior team, to the organisation and to myself to protect ourselves from short-term demands from Governors. Burnt out school leaders and staff do not bring about sustained school improvement - School Board members around the world and the British Government take note.

Bill Walsh Lessons in Leadership Part One: An example of how to transform an organisation

Bill Walsh was the coach who turned around the San Francisco 49ers taking them from the bottom of the pile to being a team that won five Super Bowl titles in 15 years. His book The Score Takes Care of Itself - My Philosophy of Leadership is packed full of insights about how to lead and manage people and how to drive change in an organisation:

"Running a football franchise is not unlike running any other business. You start first with a structural format and basic philosophy and then find the people who can implement it."  (Frontispiece)

There is not sufficient space here to do justice to all the many insights in contained in the book, so I will endeavour to give a flavour here.

Standard of Performance
At the heart of Bill Walsh's approach is the Standard of Performance - i.e. the high requirements that he had for actions and attitudes. These applied not only to the players but to every person within the organisation (he was both Head Coach and General Manager). Everyone knew how they contributed to the aim of the organisation and what what was expected of them. 

These are the characteristics of his personal Standard of Performance:

1. Exhibit a ferocious and intelligently applied work ethic directed at continual improvement;
2. Demonstrate respect for each person in the organisation and the work he or she does;
3. Be deeply committed to learning and teaching, which means increasing my own expertise;
4. Be fair
5. Demonstrate character;
6. Honor the direct connection between details and improvement;
7. Show self-control, especially where it counts most - under pressure;
8. Demonstrate and prize loyalty;
9. Use positive language and have a positive attitude;
10. Take pride in my effort as entity separate from the result of that effort;
11. Be willing to go the extra distance for the organisation;
12. Deal appropriately with victory and defeat, adulation and humiliation;
13. Promote internal communication that is both open and substantive (especially under stress);
14. Seek poise in myself and those I lead;
15. Put the team's welfare and priorities ahead of my own;
16. Maintain an ongoing level of concentration and focus that is abnormally high; and
17. Make sacrifice and commitment the organisation's trademark.

Bill Walsh was a man who liked lists ("Great organisation is the trademark of great organisations" p.85) and the book contains many useful lists of advice. Here's one for Leaders:

Be a Leader - Twelve Habits Plus One

1. Be yourself
2. Be committed to excellence
3. Be positive
4. Be prepared (Good luck is the product of good planning)
5. Be detail-oriented (but don't bury yourself in the detail)
6. Be organized
7. Be accountable
8. Be near-sighted and far-sighted (keep everything in perspective)
9. Be fair
10. Be firm
11. Be flexible
12. Believe in yourself
13. Be a leader

"A self-sustaining winning organisation"
Walsh's leadership aim was to produce "a self-sustaining winning organisation" where "everyone is able to execute their responsibilities in all ways at the highest level" (p.229), even under extreme pressure. This was illustrated in the final play of the final game that Bill Walsh ever coached. In the Super Bowl XXIII,  San Francisco 49ers were trailing 13-16 when they got possession of the ball on their own 8 yard line with only 3:08 left on the clock. What followed became legendary in NFL history: The 92 yard "Drive" to win the Super Bowl with seconds to spare:

"The Drive" was in many ways a culmination of all that Bill Walsh stood for. It was the product of hours of training, preparation, excellent strategy and meticulous planning and, executed in the cauldron of the final seconds of a Super Bowl. San Francisco went on to win Super Bowl XXIV the following year - evidence, if any were needed, that Bill Walsh had indeed produced "a self-sustaining winning organisation".

This is a book that is already heavily annotated and one to which I know that I will return, time and time again. I cannot recommend it more highly.

There is a negative side to the Bill Walsh story, which I will discuss in Part Two of this review.

The interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld - Book Review

This is a very clever book in both concept and execution. 

The concept is to set a classic detective novel within the historical context of the week-long visit of Sigmund Freud's to New York from 29 August 1909. This plot opens up the possibility for discussion of Freud's psychoanalytic theories through discussions between his inner circle, which includes Jung. An interesting recurrent discussion is of Freud's interpretation of Hamlet (Is his inaction being driven be Oedipal desires?). 

As far as its execution is concerned, the novel stands on its own feet as a murder mystery. It has many of the twists and turns associated with the genre and some excellent high tension scenes that I suspect authors include in the hope that the book will be picked up by Holywood. 

However, it is the underlying concept of this novel that is its genius: for the whole plot (and to some extent its resolution) is based on one of Freud's most famous cases (the case of Dora = Ida Bauer). Thus, like newspaper crosswords, this mystery can be solved on two levels: at a simple level by the uninformed reader by following the detectives as they uncover the clues; or at a cryptic level by Freud aficionados who will see a familiar narrative unfolding. 

This is the best kind of historical novel as it weaves together fact with imagination in order to speculate on what the protagonists might have thought, said and done. In this case, Rubenfeld explores the tensions and changing relationship between Freud and Jung which ultimately led to their 'break' in 1912. 

One of the things I always ask myself when I reach the end of an historical novel is, how much of it was true? Jed Rudenfeld must have read my mind and helpfully adds an 'author's note' to distill the fact from the fiction. An entertaining and informative read.

Program or be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age - Book Review

Over the past twenty years most of us have spent a significant part of our working and leisure hours struggling (with varying degrees of success) to keep up with the pace of technological change. We have had little time to step back to reflect on the impact that it is all having on our lives. In Program or be Programmed Douglas Rushkoff presses the pause button to outline 'Ten Commands for a Digital Age' - suggestions for how we can regain control and make digital technologies once again work for us. Each of the 'commands' are based on tendencies or 'biases' of digital media.

1. Time: Do not be always on. Digital technologies are biased away from time, and toward asynchronicity. Computers fundamentally operate outside time: a computer will wait forever for the next command. It is our use of computers that has made everything immediate. In order to regain control we need to disengage and "not be always on". The text/email/FB update will wait. 
2. Place: Live in person. Digital media are biased away from the local, and toward distance/dislocation. Last week, I was in the open air restaurant of a five-star resort looking out over one of the most beautiful bays in Vietnam, a family of six (2 grandparents, 2 parents and 2 children) were totally disconnected. They sat around the dinner table playing on their phones. We see this all the time. We need to live in person and not in a virtual world. 
3. Choice: You may always choose none of the above. The digital realm is biased towards choice, because everything ultimately must be expressed in terms of discrete, yes-no, symbolic language. In moving from the real world to the digital something gets lost in translation because inevitably digital representations are compromises. Too often we are forced into making choices that have been predetermined by the programmer. We need to recognise that we don't always have to play the programmer's game and choose not to make a choice. 
4. Complexity: You are never completely right. Digital technology is biased toward simplicity and to reducing complexity. We must take care not to mistake digital models with reality. There is evidence that young people are increasingly finding it difficult to distinguish between experiences that they have had in real and virtual environments. 
5. Scale: One size does not fit all. Digital technologies are biased toward abstraction i.e. to the separation of the individual from what is real (This is the most complex and subtle argument in the book). All media are biased towards abstraction: the written word separates the speaker from his words; the printing press disconnects the author from the page itself; digital hypertext disconnects the reader not only from the author but also from the original context, as well as enabling the reader to exit from a document at any point. The most obvious manifestation of the propensity of the digital towards abstraction is our daily encounter of 'people wearing headphones, staring into smart phones, ensconced in their private digital bubbles as they walk down what were once public streets'. 
6. Identity: Be yourself. Digital technology is biased toward depersonalisation. The less we take responsibility for what we say and do online, the more likely we are to behave in ways that reflect our worst natures. We must make an effort not to operate anonymously. We must be ourselves. 
7. Social: Do not sell your friends. Our digital networks are biased towards social connections - toward contact. Any effort to redefine or hijack those connections for profit end up compromising the integrity of the network, and compromising the real promise of contact. 'Friendships, both digital and incarnate, do create value. But this doesn't mean that the people in our lives can be understood as commodities to be collected and counted.' 
8. Fact: Tell the Truth. Digital Technology is biased against fiction and towards facts, against story and toward reality. In the Internet age "the truth will out" - eventually - so tell the truth. There are significant implications here for the world of advertising. 'Those who succeed in the new bazaar [= communication age] will be the ones who can quickly evaluate what they're hearing and learn to pass on the stuff that matters.' 
9. Openness: Share don't steal. Digital technology is biased in favour of openness and sharing. The Internet was built on a "gift economy" based more on sharing than profit, however we have great difficulty distinguishing between sharing and stealing. At present 'we are operating a C21 digital economy on a C13 printing-press-based operating system' - We need a system upgrade that rewards creators in a digital age with zero duplication costs. 
10. Purpose: Program or be Programmed. Digital technology is programmed and therefore is biased towards those who write the code. If we don't learn to program, we risk being programmed ourselves. 'Each media revolution offers people a new perspective through which to relate to their world .... With the advent of each new medium the status quo is revised and rewritten by those who have gained access to the tools of its creation .... Access is usually limited to a small elite.' 'The invention of the printing press led not to society of writers but one of readers; we don't make radio and TV we listen and watch it .... Computers and networks do offer us the ability to write, but the underlying capability of the computer era is actually programming - which almost no one knows how to do. We simply use the programs that have been made for us. Only an elite gains the ability to fully exploit the new medium on offer.' 

This is an outstanding thought-provoking book which reflects on how we can regain our humanity in face of rapid technological change. Rushmore is no Luddite - he is an insider who, in the spirit of the age, has shared his insights. Program or be Programmed is a short book which will take a couple of hours to read - time well spent as it will change the way you think about our Brave New World.

The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age - Book Review

The Alliance is a remarkably concise management book that  has some simple concepts and well-thought-out advice about managing talent in a competitive economy. At its heart is an argument for a new relationship between employers and employees. The traditional model of lifetime employment that was fostered in the relatively stable economy of the 1950s and 1960s was replaced in the 1970s and 1980s by a view that increasingly saw employees and jobs as a short-term commodity.  The consequence of 'increased shareholder value' was a breakdown trust between employers and employees, The consequence of firms shedding labour at the first sign of trouble is that employee loyalty is at an all-time low. The present state of affairs is not good for employers because employees leave mid-project; or for employees because there is no longer job security. [The only winners are the head-hunters]. The new model advocated in The Alliance is a 'middle way' between the two previous approaches:

The Alliance believes that there needs to be greater transparency and openness between what employers and employees about what they want from their working relationship:

"The business work needs a new employee framework that facilitates mutual trust, mutual investment and mutual benefit."  (p.7)  "In an alliance, the manager can speak openly and honestly about the investment the company is willing to make in the employee and what it expects in return. The employee can speak openly and honestly about the type of growth he seeks (skills, experiences, and the like) and what he will invest in the company in return by way of effort and commitment. Both sides set clear expectations." (p.9)

The authors use the analogy of a military 'tour of duty'.  Employers need employees who sign up for a 'tour of duty' whereby firms have a flexible workforce but with workers who are committed to seeing the latest project through to its end; and employees have experiences which will develop them professionally. At the end of a 'tour' there is scope for employers and employees to commit to another tour, or to part company knowing that it had been profitable for both sides.

A second dimension of this new relationship between employers and employees relates to the importance of developing and leveraging personal networks. Networks have always had an important part to play in business, but in the connected social media age, these have become one of the greatest assets both collectively of firms and of individuals. Both firms and employees through their relationship develop the brand: firms develop the company brand and employees   their own 'personal brand'. The authors argue for a symbiotic relationship, whereby the firm encourages the individual to develop their personal professional network, which in turn can help the organisation develop and flourish. This may be through bringing in business, opening up new markets, by providing the firm with 'non-public' sector/ market information, or by helping with offering solutions to challenges.  

The final aspect of the new relationship is the importance of a professional alumni network whereby the firm keeps in touch with former employees after they have move on to a new post. Lifelong employment might be a thing of the past but a lifelong relationship might be a reasonable expectation for those who complete a successful tour of duty. This alumni group can provide useful support for the firm in a number of ways, including a source of recruitment, making recommendations to others who are thinking of joining the firm and acting as critical friends.

Accelerate XLR8 - John Kotter - Book Review

In his latest book, Harvard Business School Professor, John Kotter, argues that established hierarchical managerial structures do not provide the agility for organisations to respond sufficiently quickly to take advantages of the narrow windows of opportunity that present themselves. Kotter's solution is that firms should re-organise themselves to be able to cope with the demands of an increasingly changing world. In particular, firms should augment their their hierarchical structures with a network comprised of volunteers drawn from a range of levels and divisions within the organisation. Thus the firm would have a dual-operating system with the hierarchical structure providing day-to-day reliable management and the network providing agile strategic leadership. Kotter believes that this structure existed in most firms at a much earlier stage of their evolution.

The following YouTube clip provides an excellent summary of the Kotter's main arguments:

At the heart of Kotter's argument is the concept of the "Big Opportunity":

A Big Opportunity is something that can potentially lead to significant outcomes if the possibility is exploited well enough and fast enough.  . . .  A Big Opportunity is not a "vision" . . .
A Big Opportunity is also not any form of "strategy" or "strategic initiative."  pp.133-36

In order to make the shift to a dual-operating system Kotter believes that it is necessary to develop and maintain "a strong sense of urgency".  (Here there is an echo of Kotter's previous work on Leading Change - see review of Our Iceberg is Melting.)

Urgency in the sense that I am using the word here, means that significant numbers of people wake up each morning and have, somewhere in their heads and hearts, a compelling desire to do something to move the organisation towards a big strategic opportunity.  p.112 

This was a very thought-provoking read and the advantages of the dual-operating structure are clear. It was easy to see what "B" looks like, but the practicalities of how to make the transition from an established hierarchical structure to a dual-operating system were less clear. Kotter endeavours to share his experiences of working with a number of firms who have successfully moved to this model; however, I found that the case studies given in the book are so generalised that I was left wanting more detail about how each organisation had managed to make what is undoubtedly a difficult step towards the new structure.

Links
http://www.kotterinternational.com/our-principles/accelerate

David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell - Book Review

Malcolm Gladwell has developed a proven formula for writing international bestsellers: once again, he gives us a book which provides yet more insights into modern society through sharing the fruits of academic research and anecdotes from sociological and psychological study.

At the heart of Gladwell's argument in David and Goliath is a view that power has its limitations. The 'Goliaths' of this world can dominate when the fight is on their terms; how ever if the 'Davids' go about engaging battle in an unconventional way, then there is no reason why the odds should not be in favour of the seeming underdog. Throughout the book, Gladwell works out this thesis in two distinct ways:

1. First, Gladwell introduces the reader to the concept of the 'Inverted U'. Economists are familiar with this phenomenon: as organisations grow larger, then they benefit from 'economies of scale' (they have increased efficiency, specialisation of job roles and purchasing power); however if an organisation gets too big then 'diseconomies of scale' kick in (the organisation is too big to manage, there are problems of shared vision or internal communication. Gladwell applies this argument to Governments or to large Corporate organisations and demonstrates that unconventional people and approaches can have a greater impact in these circumstances.
2. Secondly, he argues that apparent natural disadvantages (disability, being an outsider, being unconventional) can often become strengths. It is often the unconventional outsider, who has nothing to lose, who is the true agent of change and progress. This is perhaps best summed up by George Bernard Shaw's observation:

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore progress depends on the unreasonable man."

Gladwell characteristically focuses on a few key case studies to illustrate his thesis: 

• the basketball coach who achieved great success with his relatively inexperienced and unskilled team by defying convention by playing full-court press for the whole of the game;
• the phenomenon that having too much wealth can make parenting even more difficult than the norm;
• the phenomenon that less academically able students who are top at lesser universities do better than their theoretical betters who are in the bottom stream at top Ivy League schools;
• that the Impressionists changed the world's perception of modern art by defying convention and striking out on their own setting up a rival to the Salon exhibition;
• that a disproportionate number of dyslexics make it to the top in commerce by developing other important skills sets to compensate for their problems with literacy;
• the consultant on the children's Leukemia ward, who because of the hardships that he had faced growing up, thought little of putting his young patients through pain in order to find a cure for their condition;
• the reasons why the British Army failed to control the Roman Catholic population in Northern Ireland; and
• how Martin Luther-King succeeded in winning over the Nation to his cause through manipulating the Press.

Gladwell is a supreme story-teller who is able to carry the reader with him through his sheer narrative ability. Nowhere is this more evident than in the opening chapter where he takes the biblical story of David and Goliath and, at the end of his narrative, leaves the reader in no doubt that the odds were stacked to such an extent in Shepherd-boy's favour that the Philistine Champion literally didn't have a chance. However, if we take the book as a whole, Malcolm Gladwell's David and Goliath has only a superficial coherence and it is disappointing that he doesn't really explore his central theme of the limitations of power in anything other than an anecdotal way. Then again, perhaps a balanced argument sits outside the "Gladwell-genre". It remains, nevertheless, a most enjoyable romp - and one not to be missed.

The Last Foundling by Tom H. Mackenzie - Book Review

The Last Foundling is not the sort of book that I'd ever pick out in Waterstones, but fortunately social attitude and human interest stories are a particular interest of my partner, hence it found its way onto our holiday reading list. It caught my eye because the book is set, for the most part, in Berkhamsted and unveils a chapter of the town's history with which I was previously unaware.  

It follows the parallel stories of a mother, Jean, and her child. It tells how Jean was forced to give up her son in 1939 to the Foundling Hospital, because, as an unmarried mother, she was unable to support him. She expresses her anguish in having to give up her child and charts her hopes and aspirations to be reunited with him once more.
The heart of the book is Tom's account of his upbringing: how, once removed from his birth mother and given a new name and identity, he was placed in a safe and happy foster home for his early years, from which he was torn away to be placed in the Foundling Hospital in Berkhamsted just before his fifth birthday.
The original Foundling Hospital had been established in Bloomsbury by Thomas Coram and received its first foundlings in 1741. It moved to a purpose-built school in Berkhamsted in 1935 only to close in 1954. The buildings are now used by Ashlyns School.  No doubt the intentions of the Founder and the Foundling Hospital staff were otherwise, but Tom Mackenzie describes a cold, loveless, institutional existence; the brutality of the dormitories; and the scrapes into which he got with the various families who were kind and brave enough to take him in during the vacations.

Written throughout in the first person, the unemotional, matter-of-fact style of the book powerfully conveys the detachment and lack of belonging that clearly characterised the author's upbringing. There is no bitterness or blame here - just the mature reflections of an old man looking back on how this institutional unloving childhood shaped the adult that he became. Above all the book explores the theme of the importance of family life in defining who we truly are: the account of a foundling childhood devoid of affection or family can only draw out in the reader a deeper appreciation of those who provided love and a stable home for those of us who were lucky enough to have both.

'I was one of Britain's last foundlings' Guardian 08/03/2014

Our Iceberg is Melting by John Kotter - Book Review

Fables have a deceptive power. On the surface they read like the stories of our childhood employing simple vocabulary to describe everyday contexts to which we can all relate. Their narrative structure lulls our adult brain into a false sense of security, disabling the rational analytical faculties that usually protect our cherished world view. We uncritically play along with the story until we reach the point where the fable's inner truth is unavoidable. So it is with John Kotter's Our Iceberg is Melting.

Our Iceberg is Melting presents as a children's book: it is in large print with colourful illustrations - a six year old probably would enjoy it, if he had the patience to sit for the 45 minutes it takes to read. It is the story of an Emperor Penguin colony faced with a potentially devastating problem that is threatening their home. Fred, a low-ranking quirky penguin discovers that the iceberg on which the colony has lived for unknown generations is melting and is likely to fracture. The story charts how a small group lead the colony through the process of coming up with a solution and effecting their plan.

As well written as it is, Kotter is no children's author. A Harvard Business School professor, he is one of the world's experts and best-selling author on leadership and change. "Our Iceberg is Melting is a simple fable about doing well in an ever-changing world" and the characters that we meet in Our Iceberg is Melting are 'types' that are found in every organisation. The tale "is one of resistance to change and heroic action, seemingly intractable obstacles and the most clever tactics for dealing with those obstacles" (quotes from dust jacket).

Our Iceberg is Melting is a powerful illustration of Kotter's Eight Step Process of Successful Change outlined in his book Leading Change:

1. Create a sense of urgency. Help others see the need for change and the importance of acting immediately. 
2. Pull together the guiding team. Make sure there is a powerful group guiding the change - one with leadership skills, credibility, communications ability, authority, analytical skills, and a sense of urgency.
3. Develop the change, vision and strategy. Clarify how the future will be different from the past, and how you can make that future a reality. 
4. Make sure as many others as possible understand and accept the vision and strategy.
5. Empower others to act. Remove as many barriers as possible so that those who want to make the vision a reality can do so. 
6. Create some visible, unambiguous successes as soon as possible. 
7. Don't let up. Press harder and faster after the first successes. Be relentless with initiating change after change until the vision is a reality. 
8. Create a new culture. Hold on to the new ways of behaving, and make sure they succeed, until they become strong enough to replace old traditions.